Tetanus toxin is an extremely potent neurotoxin produced by the vegetative cell of Clostridium tetani in anaerobic conditions, causing tetanus. It has no known function for clostridia in the soil environment where they are normally encountered. It is also called spasmogenic toxin, or TeNT. The LD50 of this toxin has been measured to be approximately 1 ng/kg, making it second only to Botulinum toxin H as the deadliest toxin in the world. However, these tests are conducted solely on mice which may react to the toxin differently from humans and other animals. The tetanus toxin protein has a molecular weight of 150kDa. It is translated from the TetX gene as one protein which is subsequently cleaved into two parts: a 100kDa heavy or B-chain and a 50kDa light or A-chain. The chains are connected by a disulfide bond.
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